New York newspaper reporter Walter Barnett finds himself out of a job after he claims to have found actress Angela Merrova dead in her apartment - only the next day she showed up alive and threatened to sue the paper. Determined to investigate he discovers her involvement with a strange doctor who is an expert on human blood. Barnett then finds a connection to a series of gruesome murders where the victims were all found drained of blood.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: skyhook - - March 24, 2013
Subject: Doctor X hasn't returned yet.
Copyright issues aside, and apart from the fact that there's a fuzzy but discernible "mcmxxxii" in the opening credits, this movie is pure 1932. The style and typeface of the credits, the plot devices, the stars the clothes. . .everything nails this right down, except that it's in color. The color is by far the most impressive thing about this silly flick (excepting Fay Wray perhaps). Flesh tones are rich and warm (on my setup anyways) while everything else is in shades of green. It's somehow quite effective dramatically.

The story itself is an unpleasant mix of sinister monster stuff and lame comedy, set in a scientific institution which is, in cinematic terms, a 'dark house' (sliding panels, hidden closets, dah dah dah. . .). It doesn't work: a surprisingly brooding and menacing scene is threaded through with dreadful slapstick for example, or a comedy setup is interrupted by weighty sci-fi moralizing.

Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray come out of this well. There's a repellent, imbecile newspaper reporter who's supposed to carry things along but makes the movie hard to bear, a clutch of crazy professors and a plot so incredibly contrived, so clunky and preposterous that it makes the plots of all those 50s monster flicks seem plausible and logical. You can marvel at the color, however, while praying that the vile reporter meets an unprecedentedly gruesome fate.

Reviewer: WINSTON SMITH3353 - - March 22, 2013
Subject: Doctor X, 1932
Yes, it does appear to be the first of three Doctor X films starring Leon Atwill. The plot follows exactly that which is described on both IMDB and Wikipedia for Doctor X and the credit at the end of the film clearly states "1932." It is therefore unlikely that this The Return of Doctor X.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Doctor X (1932) is a First National/Warner Bros. horror and mystery film. Based on the play originally titled The Terror (New York, 9 Feb 1931) by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lee Tracy, Fay Wray, and Lionel Atwill.

The film was produced before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced. Themes such as murder, rape, cannibalism and prostitution are interwoven into the story. The film was one of the last films made, along with Warners' Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), in the two-color Technicolor process. Black and white prints were shipped to small towns and to foreign markets, while color prints were reserved for major cities.
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The two-color Technicolor process is beautifully exhibited when viewing directly off this site, but I was unable to capture anything but a strong blue tint on all the downloads available here.

Fair film, but since it is a pre-Motion Picture Production Code preservation, it carries importance for that alone. 3 stars.

Thank you, IA, for finding, preserving, and making this film available to all.

Reviewer: rnrossi - - March 27, 2012
Subject: This is NOT "The Return of Doctor X"!
This is "Doctor X" 1932, the first movie in the Doctor X series. Sorry, wrong number.

Reviewer: yakofujimato - - October 30, 2009
Subject: More Copyrighted Movies from Phantasmagoria
Can someone explain to him because a film is in B&W and is from the 1930s, 40s or 50s, that does not put it in the Public Domain?

You can't just upload anything you want and call it 'public domain' because you want it to be!

What's next? Will he upload 'Star Wars' and call it "public domain" and ask me to prove that it's not??

Reviewer: Video-Cellar - - October 30, 2009
Subject: This Film is mislabelled and Copyright
This is "Doctor X" 1932 Not one of its sequels.

The copyright LP3147 was renewed by Warner Bros. The copyright is in force until the end of 2027